2256 - Horrors Inside an ICE Detention Center, Blue Bottle Unionizes w/ Alex Sammon and Blue Bottle Union Reps

Summary

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - Episode 2256 Summary

Release Date: June 26, 2025
Guests: Alex Salmon (Slate), Claire Otorino & B.B. Young (Blue Bottle Union Representatives)

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1. NYC Mayoral Election: Zoran Mamdani's Triumph

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the recent New York City mayoral election, highlighting the unexpected victory of Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist advocating for progressive policies such as rent freezes, city-owned grocery stores, and free bus fares. Host Matt Leck and co-hosts discuss the implications of Mamdani's win and the reactions from political heavyweights like hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman.

Key Points:

• Zoran Mamdani's Platform: Emphasis on supporting long-term New Yorkers through rent stabilization and expanding public services.

• Bill Ackman's Response: Ackman criticizes Mamdani's policies, questioning their feasibility and democratic socialist agenda. He employs social media strategies, such as lengthy tweets, to voice his opposition.

  Matt Leck: "Bill Ackman yesterday posts... 'I have a great idea on NYC. I will share it as soon as I can.' [09:50]"

• Multiple Candidates: The discussion covers other mayoral hopefuls, including Andrew Cuomo running under a third-party banner, incumbent Eric Adams seeking re-election on an independent line, and Republican Curtis Siawa of the Guardian Angels.

• Strategic Undermining: Ackman's efforts are portrayed as an attempt to destabilize Mamdani's administration by promoting alternative candidates with less commitment to public service.

  Matt Leck: "Bill Ackman comes again... 'there are other charismatic, intelligent, articulate, handsome, charming, young, yet more experienced and importantly more centrist politicians' [15:37]"

Insights:

• The victory signals a shift towards more progressive governance in NYC.
• Ackman's influence reflects the ongoing battle between traditional financial elites and emerging socialist movements.

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2. Interview with Alex Salmon: "American Siberia"

Alex Salmon, a feature writer for Slate, joins the show to shed light on the harrowing conditions inside ICE detention centers, focusing on a facility in Gina, Louisiana.

Key Points:

• Historical Context: Gina began as a juvenile detention center plagued by abuse under the Clinton administration and later repurposed to house ICE detainees post-Katrina.

  Sam Cedar: "The federal DOJ documentation from that period is... a catalog of abuse is like unbelievable. [33:18]"

• Private Prisons Dilemma: The facility, operated by what is now GEO Group, exemplifies the failures of private prisons in maintaining humane conditions.

• Impact of Policies: Despite attempts to shut down the facility due to abuses, private prison companies rebrand and expand, especially under administrations favoring strict immigration policies.

  Sam Cedar: "It's, it's, it's just incredibly remunerative industry. [40:07]"

• Community Reactions: The small town of Gina grapples with the stigma and operational challenges of hosting an ICE detention center, leading to distrust and hostility towards outsiders.

  Sam Cedar: "No one wanted their name on anything... [51:12]"

Notable Quote:

Alex Salmon: "People can win their asylum case and still not get out... one of these things where... he was stuck and died even after winning." [48:06]

Insights:

• The interview underscores the systemic issues within private detention facilities and their detrimental effects on both detainees and local communities.
• It highlights the cyclical nature of abuse in privatized incarceration systems and the lack of accountability.

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3. Unionization Efforts at Blue Bottle Coffee

Claire Otorino and B.B. Young represent the Blue Bottle Independent Union, discussing their grassroots efforts to unionize within the company amid resistance and retaliation from management.

Key Points:

• Initiation of Union Drive: Sparked by previous organizers, the movement seeks better wages, consistent hours, and improved working conditions.

  Claire Otorino: "We were very instrumental... helping us fund the union. [55:22]"

• Retaliation Tactics: B.B. Young was fired after reading a unionization letter, a move seen as an attempt to intimidate and discourage others from joining the union.

  B.B. Young: "I was the only one fired... [57:55]"

• Independent Union Strategy: Choosing to remain unaffiliated with larger unions to maintain autonomy and focus on specific worker needs.

  Claire Otorino: "It gives us a little bit more freedom... [59:30]"

• Community Support: Emphasis on building solidarity among workers and leveraging community backing to strengthen their position.

  B.B. Young: "A lot of the customer base were super unhappy... [66:44]"

Notable Quotes:

Claire Otorino: "The strike fund helps replenish lost wages... ready for it. [69:28]"

B.B. Young: "This shook everyone and especially my co-workers... [66:44]"

Insights:

• The unionization effort at Blue Bottle exemplifies the broader struggle for workers' rights in the service industry.
• Retaliatory actions by employers highlight the ongoing challenges union organizers face in securing recognition and fair treatment.

How to Support:

• Listeners are encouraged to visit Bluebottle Union and support the union through donations or advocacy.
• B.B. Young has set up a GoFundMe to assist those affected by retaliation.

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4. Post-Interview Banter and Analysis

Following the interviews, the hosts engage in spirited discussions about the broader political climate following the mayoral election results. Topics include the missteps of pundits like Nate Silver and Matt Iglesias, the influence of elite donors like Mark Gorton, and the behaviors of public figures in destabilizing progressive victories.

Key Points:

• Pundit Failures: Critique of analysts who failed to predict Mamdani's win, emphasizing the disconnect between pundits and ground realities.

  Emma Vigeland: "It's spreading like wildfire... Zoron derangement syndrome. [72:51]"

• Elite Donor Influence: Examination of how significant financial backing from figures like Mark Gorton impacts political races, often prioritizing business interests over genuine support.

  Emma Vigeland: "It's not the same as the donations that Bernie gets... [79:25]"

• Future Outlook: Speculation on the evolving political landscape and the potential for increased polarization and strategic political maneuvering.

Notable Quote:

Brandon Sutton: "This is your opportunity... [20:16]"

Insights:

• The conversation underscores the persistent influence of money in politics and the hurdles faced by progressive candidates against well-funded opposition.
• It also reflects on the importance of grassroots movements and authentic political engagement in shaping electoral outcomes.

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Conclusion

Episode 2256 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder offers a comprehensive exploration of pivotal political events shaping New York City and the broader national landscape. From the triumph of a progressive mayoral candidate facing elite opposition to the harrowing realities of ICE detention centers and the resilient fight for workers' rights within the coffee industry, the episode underscores the ongoing struggles and victories within America's socio-political fabric.

Stay Informed and Get Involved:

• Support the Blue Bottle Union: bluebottleunion.org
• Assist B.B. Young: GoFundMe
• Read Alex Salmon's report: American Siberia on Slate

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Note: This summary excludes sponsored segments, intros, outros, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantive discussions presented in the episode.

Transcript

[Matt Binder]

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[Sam Cedar]

The Majority Report with Sam Cedar.

[Matt Leck]

It is Thursday June 26th, 2025. I am not Sam Cedar, but I am your fill in host for today, Matt Binder. And this is the five time award winning the Majority Report. And while the rest of the crew is broadcasting to you live from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, Brooklyn, New York City, I am actually coming to you from the industrially ravaged shadow of Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets. Yeah. In Flushing, Queens. Folks, we got a great show for you today. Don't be fooled by me being here. Emma's not here obviously, but Sam is here in spirit or I should say via pre record. Sam Cedar has interviews for you that he conducted. And then the boys, myself, Matt Leck, whoever else. Brandon Sutton will be joining us, I'm sure. And we'll take it over from there after Sam's interview. But Sam's guests for today are close Claire Otorino and B.B. young representing the Blue Bottle Independent Union and Alex Salmon, features writer at Slate discussing his piece American Siberia. Donald Trump is enacting his darkest agenda in the backyard of a small Louisiana town. We'll have all of that and much, much more for you today on this beautiful Thursday. Matt Leck, are you still feeling so there's still a, a skip to my step ever since the results of Tuesday night selection here in New York City. Do you feel the same way?

[Brandon Sutton]

Yeah, it generally feels like a corner has been turned on a pretty dark period. And this is, this is just me enjoying the moment right now. Obviously, rationally I know that something, another shoe is going to drop and you know, we're going to be back in what do they call it, hell world, right? No, it feels good right now and it feels like, you know, that's like the law of physics have been once again reinstated into the world.

[Matt Leck]

Right. It feels like, you know, the dawn of a new day. I think Zoran Mamdani said something like that himself in one of his speeches. But for some people, they're not feeling so hot like we are, Matt. They don't feel like Zoran Mamdani's big win in the Democratic primary in New York City as a running as a Democratic socialist on a platform of freeze the rent, city owned grocery stores, free bus fares. They don't feel like that's so great like we do. And one of those people is the hedge fund manager and Donald Trump backer, Bill Ackman. Now for those of you who might not recall Bill Ackman, he was actually involved in the Democratic primary, which is sort of Funny that he's coming into this now is if he's just been awoken to what's been going on because he was a big money spender for Andrew Cuomo's super pac, the super PAC backing Andrew Cuomo. And along with being a Trump donor, like I mentioned, he's also well known for being the guy who can't write a tweet without turning it into a 10,000 word essay. Also the guy.

[Brandon Sutton]

Are you verified?

[Matt Leck]

What's that?

[Brandon Sutton]

Are you verified on Twitter from the old days?

[Matt Leck]

Yeah, yeah, I am. Well, no, I'm actually verified because of Elon Musk's punishment on me when he wanted me to stop the blocking blue checks.

[Brandon Sutton]

My question is, because I'm not verified, do you have access to some sort of metrics of how much of this tweet did people read? Because the way that these guys write novellas and think anybody, even the people who agree with them, is scrolling to the bottom on Twitter, Like, I don't think it's ever happened in the history of the app.

[Matt Leck]

Right. We don't know how much people are reading. But what I do know is that in order to promote those features, the being able to Write more than 280 characters, you need to be a blue check, which for most people means paying for Twitter, AKA X, the Everything app. And so the algorithm does promote those long extended tweets, you know, algorithmically to people's feeds in order to promote the idea of writing these long essays on, on Twitter. But I don't think any, you know, it might get more views because it shows up in people's feeds even though they don't want it in their feed. But I don't think people are reading it. I don't go to Twitter to read long form content.

[Brandon Sutton]

I'm trying to think like drop site. I even mentioned it. Like I read to the end of a drop site news tweet that was overlong and it was. I could tell it was the first time I'd ever done that in my entire life.

[Matt Leck]

Right. Also, I don't know if people know this, but Elon Musk's Twitter sucks so much, even just like technically, that if you write one of those long tweets that extends past like the show More thing, you actually can't search anything past that Show More in Twitter. Search like the tweet won't come up. So if you write the keyword that people are going to be searching, like below the fold, like below, like past the 280 character mark. It's just not going to show up in Twitter search because they haven't. They haven't figured out the technology to do so yet.

[Brandon Sutton]

Look, Grok is only getting exponentially better. It's going to be basically a smart as all of humanity ever. Pretty soon we just need about $10 billion more of data servers and that.

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Brandon Sutton]

The other problem with society will be fixed right now.

[Matt Leck]

Speaking of, like we were saying, Bill Ackman's long tweets, you know, the guy who also defended his wife's plagiarism and in turn accidentally sort of, I don't know if unveiled the right word, but cemented in everyone's brain that she has connections to Jeffrey Epstein, this guy.

[Brandon Sutton]

So he supported Trump in 2024.

[Matt Leck]

Sorry, just to big Trump supporter in 2024, big money donor to Trump and Cuomo. So Bill Ackman yesterday posts in the middle of the afternoon, like when you guys are doing this show yesterday. I have a great idea on nyc. I will share it as soon as I can. I was a bit depressed when I woke up this morning, but I am now optimistic. And then a couple minutes later he posts, we are looking into legal issues. No one's like, what is he gonna, is he gonna try to overturn the election like this fair election that just happened?

[Sam Cedar]

Right?

[Matt Leck]

And then so Bill Ackman comes again a couple hours later, legal issues concerning the potential for another candidate to run. Now, now this is obviously they want, you know, people should know that this isn't over. Mamdani goes to the general and he's not gonna be facing just one other guy in the general. There is actually a whole slate of candidates waiting for him in the general. Andrew Cuomo is technically on the ballot because he registered under a third party that he made up specifically to be in the general election ballot in case he lost. But he wasn't expecting to lose this badly. So now he's actually trying to decide whether it's even worth running. And then you have Eric Adams, who is our current mayor, the incumbent in New York City who didn't run on the Democratic Party line, which he won on in 2021 to become mayor because he knew he would lose in the primary because he's now beholden to Trump so he could get those charges of corruption and bribery from Turkey dropp dropped. So he's running on an independent line as well as the incumbent. And then there's the Republican candidate, the actual official Republican candidate, not to be confused with Cuomo and Eric Adams. Curtis Siwa, who is the Guardian Angels guy, who you Know is the red hat, barrette wearing, beret wearing guy or whatever with like 20 cats, right? Yeah. He lives in a studio apartment with 20 cats, which is honestly the most likable thing about him. The Guardian Angels are gonna be someone with two cats.

[Brandon Sutton]

That's too many cats.

[Matt Leck]

Yeah, I guess. But apparently he like, he's a. He helps them or whatever. But the guy goes around though. And this is what the Guardian Angels have done for decades. Literally going around like as vigilantes policing the streets that any authority, and they most notably on Fox News air, we played it on this show, I think a year ago, saw someone who they thought was an undocumented immigrant commit what they thought was a crime and they literally just attacked him on air. So that's the type of stuff that you'd get, I guess, if the state work for ice, Right. The law and order Republicans, of course, choosing their Democrat, excuse me, their Republican mayoral candidate as the literal vigilante and interesting. And then there's this other independent guy, Jim Walden or something like that running who's just like, I don't even know his deal, but. So you. There are people to go with. But apparently not good enough for Bill Ackman because early this morning, like around midnight, he drops one of his long essays about how he awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City. I thought, what has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices of city owned supermarkets, who doesn't understand that freezing rents will only reduce the supply of housing, who has no organization, let alone a city with $100 billion budget and a $2 trillion economy and who believes chance for globalizing the Intifada are acceptable wins the Democratic Party. And then he goes after speaking to those who supported Mamdani. I would love to know who the hell he spoke to. Which by the way, it actually might be his own daughter. Because one of the reasons this guy got politically active is his daughter went away to college and became a Marxist.

[Brandon Sutton]

And then like I think had some questions about Israel too.

[Matt Leck]

Yes, yes, he says, I believe that he won the primary largely not due to his policies. Yes, yeah, right. But that's exactly. That's something we've seen from everyone from the abundance guys to there was a whole slate of candidates. Many, many. Maybe they didn't call themselves Democratic socialists, but people who were considered progressives in New York City who did not take off whatsoever because at the core, yeah, Brad Lander. If, if, if Mom, Donnie didn't run, Lander would have been the person that progressives coalesced around. But Mamdani had better policies. And I guess the speaking and charisma adds to that. But the policies were at the core. I mean, people know what Mamdani's policies are about. Because Bill Ackman, for example, was just able to check off each and every one because that's how memorable they are. People like those policies and their memorable policies cuz they're unique and different and people support them. So he goes, but rather because he's a superb politician who ran a remarkable and inspiring campaign. So you're wondering why Bill Ackman is now now promoting Mamdani. And it's because again, I can't read this whole thing. It's like a 10,000 word essay. But then he uses it to segue into how there are plenty of charismatic individuals out there, including people who have centrist or moderate policy ideas. And he's basically begging someone here. I'll skip down below. This is like five or six paragraphs later. The good news is that there are other charismatic, intelligent, articulate, handsome, charming, young. Wow, he really has a hard on from Donnie. It sounds like everything but the policies. The good news is that there are other charismatic, intelligent, articulate, handsome, charming, young, yet more experienced and importantly more centrist politicians who are New York residents eligible for officers. There are also extremely talented members of the New York business community who could be superb bears Bloomberg being the reference standard from the past. And this setup is extremely attractive for a run for mayor. There are only 132 days until the election, which means the commitment of time to run is de minimis. So basically, he's basically saying, hey, if you want to run in this election, you don't even got to care about the people of New York enough to run a long campaign. This shit will be over in a heartbeat. This will.

[Brandon Sutton]

Then you have to be mayor.

[Matt Leck]

Yeah. This will be the most closely watched mayoral election in decades, perhaps ever, particularly in the social media and podcast. So he literally goes on to say, there's all these positives of running as my candidates to stop mom Donnie, but none of it involves actually serving the people of New York City. It's all about raising your own personal profile. And in return, you help me stop Mamdani. It's literally what he's saying. He continues, importantly, there are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available to back a competitor, competitor to Mamdani, that can be put together overnight. Believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups. I would love to be in those WhatsApp groups and see these guys meltdown.

[Brandon Sutton]

Oh my God.

[Matt Leck]

So that a great alternative candidate won't spend any time raising funds. So he basically. One unfortunate fact he adds a couple paragraphs later as far as I understand, and this is where the legal issues from before come is that the candidate will have to be a write in candidate.

[Brandon Sutton]

So that's gonna be great.

[Matt Leck]

He's looking to, to feel the candidate again. There are four other candidates at least on the ballot whose name is not Zoran Mamdani. And he is looking to back a completely separate new candidate that can't even get ballot access in time because that, that, that ship has sailed. And he's fielding this person as a writing candidate who doesn't have to run a real campaign for a long time because A, there's not much time, B, he's got all the money in the world behind him. So don't worry about it. We'll just throw money at it. So you don't even gotta, you don't even gotta meet those smelly peons of New York City. The people who live in. Let's not even talk about just the people who in the Bronx and Queens and Brooklyn. You definitely won't even have to talk to those petty bourgeoisie in Manhattan. So it's incredible that he's doing this. It's absolutely incredible. And so this is what their plan is to stop Mamdani field a another candidate who would run as a write in. But I guess it's a little bit more interesting from Ackman's view is a little bit more interesting than some of the other things I've seen such as this right wing pundit who's been on Tucker Carlson show, Fox News, Tim Pool show, Nick sore tortoise who has taken to social media begging Donald Trump to invoke the Communist control Act of 1954 in order to block Zoran Mamdani from becoming mayor of New York. We have to play hardball. He said. The Department of Justice can easily establish communist ties given Mamdani openly boosted a communist group and called for a communist mayor. He should also lose his status as a naturalized citizen given he began associating with communists within five years of becoming a US citizen. Now the Communist Control act of 1954 is actually still technically on the books Even though in 1973 an Arizona court ruled that the act violated the Constitution of the United States. When Arizona tried to block the Communist Party USA from creating a new branch of the party in the state and run candidates in the run up to the 1972 US presidential election. So this is already been shot down. An incredible Hail Mary to literally get someone removed from the ballot and the country because of their political beliefs, but also stunning all around. From the Ackmans to the sort Tours the guy I just mentioned that like, if Mamdani is going to be so bad, like they think, and they hate New York so much, they tell us this all the time, why wouldn't they be joyful that Mamdani is going to destroy the city they hate and in turn ruin the reputation of progressives and leftists and democratic socialists all throughout the country? I mean, if that was. If you felt so strongly about those things, then the combination of events here is the perfect scenario strategically for you to prove once and for all that you've been right all along about, about liberal cities, about the left, about Democrats, about socialism. This is your opportunity. This is like, this is the best thing that could happen to you.

[Brandon Sutton]

They were acting the same way after AOC won the primary in 2018, that oh, we're gonna use this to cream the Democrats in the midterms and then in the general in 2020. And Democrats did well in both of those elections.

[Matt Binder]

Right.

[Matt Leck]

But what I think is going on here is that unlike aoc, Mamdani actually has the power to do these things that he's saying he will do. Like people keep saying, oh yeah, I don't know. He can't freeze the rent. Actually, he can, he can freeze. Yeah. People don't understand what, what he's talking about either. Like the freeze the rent thing is all about freezing the rent of rent stabilized apartments in New York City. And they, they love to bring out the idea that this isn't going to solve the housing cris. And all mom Donnie cares about is helping out, you know, recent transplants to New York City. I can tell you as a born and raised lifelong New Yorker for over 38 years, the people living in rent stabilized apartments, rent stabilized apartments are pretty hard to get in New York City. People who are in rent stabilized apartments, once they do get it, they live there for years, not years, decades, generations. They stay there. So what this would do is provide relief to lifelong, probably mostly born and raised New York working class residents. And that's the main thing here, to provide relief for them. He has other plans for a whole slew of housing policy initiatives. This is to straight up help New York's working people who've lived here for many years and just help give them relief as prices raise. All across the board, really all over the country, but especially in New York City, to give them relief in just one area, the rent. And I can tell you as a rent stabilized resident myself, you know, it's, it's going to be a huge help for working families like myself, especially people with kids such as myself. So, you know, this is what they fear, that Mamdani can actually do something by himself, straight up, that's going to help people like AOC's win was huge. And it's important to have someone like that in federal government. But As a single U.S. house representative, she, she can't enact her agenda alone. So you know, they, they can use these things to knock her. But Mamdani, there are things as mayor he can just outright do. And that's why they are so scared of this. Because a democratic socialist can finally, has finally been given the office in which they can enact at least some of the things they outright plan to do on their own. And they are running scared because people will like it.

[Brandon Sutton]

Can I just insert one other element to this? Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is a sort of like right wing, she calls herself an ex Muslim and she's also somebody who was cited by Anders Breivik before he murdered 77 people in Norway, I think it was. And her response to that was the people who failed to speak up against Muslims coming to Europe are the actual cause. And they left people like Breivik no choice. But anyway, Ayaan has a recommendation that I want to second. In fact, she responded to this novel that Bill Ackman wrote about being gravely concerned. She said the answer is looking you in the face. You are the best candidate to run against Mamdani. The Michael Bloomberg of 2025, a dedicated new Yorker and the opposite of this guy in every respect. So I would just say yes, please. Bill ackman Cuomo spent $100 per vote that he got. I want you to double that. I want you to spend 200 of your own dollars in order to lose in the general election as a running candidate against Zoram Hamdani. And please listen to these people like Ayan Hirsi Ali who are definitely not just trying to get you to open their checkbook and sponsor their next sort of venture in Islamophobia. They really mean what's best for you is to run against Zoran as a writing candidate using your own money.

[Matt Leck]

Right? These people have no idea about New York whatsoever. They don't know about the people who live here. They don't about the politics of the people who live here. They know nothing about New York. I've seen people say, oh, we're going to let a election where only 9.01% of eligible voters voted. More people voted for Zoran Mamdani in the first round of this election than voted for Eric Adams last time around. And you don't see people denying that Eric Adams should have been mayor because less than 9% of people voted in the election in total. This is just how New York, this is really how it is in general, people, most voters are sort of passive politically and they just don't care enough about the primaries and they let the more politically minded people hash that out and then they come out in the general and just pick whoever their party chose. That's just how it is. I wish more people were active, but most people seemingly don't want to be.

[Brandon Sutton]

You know who needs to be active? Dsa. And that's who was and that's why we won. Thank you to all the DSA folks who have been knocking so many doors. And that's not something that's going to want to be emphasized by the people saying it's all about. About Zoran's riz. I think it's about the people who were ready to go to battle for him and they won.

[Matt Leck]

Right? Right. So with that said, let's get to the interviews that Sam Cedar has awaiting us. Which one is up first, guys?

[Brandon Sutton]

First we got some ads and then we're gonna get to Alex Salmon.

[Matt Leck]

Perfect. All right, Myself, Matt Leck and the rest of the Mr. Crew will see you shortly right after these Sam Cedar words from our sponsor sponsors.

[Matt Binder]

Thanks, Matt. Today's episode sponsored by a company that I've been using for or service company Both for about 10 years, way before they decide sponsor the program. It's Delete me. And what Delete me does is makes it quick and easy and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time when there's all sorts of things like surveillance or doxing or data breaches that help scammers and phishers and identity theft, everyone is vulnerable to this now more than ever, particularly with a certain administration who is rolling back a lot of protections on like do not call this, etc. Etc. But what Delete Me does is they do all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. You give them your email, you give them all the information you want not to be out there. And they keep scrubbing this stuff from data broker sites. In fact, Sometimes you even get like an email from the data broker to like if you didn't request because what they're doing is they're requesting on your behalf to scrub all this stuff from all these sites and then they give you updates in these email reports, essentially what's been scrubbed, how many places they found your information, etc. Etc. And they do it on a monthly basis because these data brokers, they repopulate. It is, it is a constant struggle. But the beauty is Deleteme does all the work. It's not a one time service. I want to thank Delete Me for sponsoring today's episode. I also appreciate them as a service. They have been scrubbing my info from the web for like I say, years. With Delete Me I protect both my personal privacy, the privacy of my business and as you can imagine, with what I do. No, that's a good thing. Take control of your data. Keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for you today. Get 20% off your delete Me plan by texting the word majority to 64,000. The only way to get 20% off is to text majority to 64,000. That's majority to the number 64000 message and data rates may apply. Also this episode is brought to you by in part Sock Doc. One of the problems that people have with seeing a doctor is how much of a pain in the butt it is because you don't know if the doctor will take your insurance. You don't know if you're able to set up an appointment. You don't even know which doctor to go to. We have all been there. Booking a doctor's appointment can feel daunting. So what do you do? You put it off and then maybe you get sick. Thanks to zocdoc, there is no reason to delay. They make it super easy to find a doctor and to book a doctor who's right for you. ZocDoc is a free app and website for that matter where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. Super easy. We're talking about booking in network appointments with more than 100,000 doctors across every special specialty. Mental health to dental health, primary care to urgent care, and more and more. You can filter for doctors who take your insurance. You can filter for doctors who are located nearby. You can filter doctors for a good fit for any medical need you have and you can filter for ones that are highly rated by verified patients. Once you find the right doctor you can see their actual appointment openings so there's no going back and forth. What about Thursday at 3? No, I can't do that. What about, can I do Thursday at noon? Well, no, the doctor's not there. You can see all the openings. You choose a time slot that works for you, you click, you're instantly booked a visit. Appointments made through Zocdoc happen so fast, typically within 24 to 72 hours of booking. So you can even score same day appointments. Both Matt and Emma have used zocdoc for a whole host of doctor appointments. I was out of town once. I found my dentist that way. Not my dentist, but the dentist I needed at the time because when you get old, sometimes you have dental emergencies, I guess at any age. Anyways, I want to thank Zocdoc for sponsoring today's episode. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments. Go to Zocdoc.com Majority to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That Z O C doc. Zocdoc.com Majority Zocdoc.com Majority we are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. It's a pleasure to welcome back to the program Alex Salmon, feature [e-mail] Alex, you wrote this really amazing piece, disturbing in many respects about Jenna. Louisiana has a population of 4,000 people, has a crazy history of, I don't know that crazy, but a history of being closely associated with the carceral state for quite some time. Give us a little background about this before we get up to present day.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, so this is like central Louisiana. So it's, you know, a part of the state, part of the country. There's not a lot of economic activity. It's not a, you know, certainly not a metropolis. And so a lot of these places, you know, it was an oil and timber town basically. Gina it's like either work in the, in the oil fields or the logging woods. And both those things went bust in the 80s. And so what happened there, as in many places in Louisiana, is they had to diversify the economy and they built a prison which was, you know, steady industry. It's like a lot of, it's the way a lot of these towns bring federal money or state money to places that are pretty much, you know, blighted and forgotten about. So they built this prison in just outside of town. It was a juvenile detention center at first and it's like 276 beds basically from the moment it opened. It was like incredibly scandal plagued.

[Matt Binder]

It was this a state juvenile facility. And so okay, yeah, it was A.

[Sam Cedar]

State facility and yeah, State Facility 267, basically teenagers. And it was like from the second it opened. It opened in 98 and I think with just over a year, it was so scandal plagued. Just the allegations of abuse are like stunning. Like the Clinton administration, which is obviously the tough on crime Clinton administration, which couldn't find a jail, it didn't like the look of. They sued both the state of Louisiana and Wackenhut, which was the private prison company that would eventually become Geo Group, basically alleging that there was like widespread mistreatment, borderline torturous conditions for these kids. And like the, the, you know, the federal, the DOJ documentation from that period is like, it's pretty stunning. It's, it's the, the catalog of abuse is like unbelievable. And they, at first they were like going to set up a deal to get it back on the straight and narrow. And then Wackenhut, the private prison company was just like, nevermind, we'll just shut it down. It's not worth the effort.

[Matt Binder]

And this was an era when private prisons was really just starting to gear up, wasn't it?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, yeah. So it was like. It's a real, I mean really interesting, you know, the political economy of this stuff I think is fascinating, but. Right. It's sort of deeply neoliberal era where it's like you want to build out state capacity to imprison people, but you don't really have the ability to do it on a public sector level or you think it's cheaper to do it with the private sector. So Wackenhut is sort of the great exemplar of this. As, as at that point the largest private operator in the world goes on to become GEO Group. Now we have geo, which is the biggest in the country. And that's all before we get into immigrant detention. Right. That was, that's a, that's before this, this industry evolved. So that was, you know, that was the late 90s.

[Matt Binder]

Right. And this was all sort of like a trajectory, I think if I remember correctly from the 80s, the early 80s, as you know, Reagan era. And it had really its biggest growth, I think as far as I remember, I should say until I think recently in the wake of that client that the crime bill under Bill Clinton, that sort of confluence of both the tough on crime era and the like you say, neoliberal sort of more corporate policies of the Democratic party. And then. Okay, so what happens after it closes? Then what happens with this facility?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, so really short run, right? Not the best, not the Most heartening ROI on that thing they built. You know, they build it up. They get 16 months of basically child abuse. It gets shut down and emptied out. It sits empty for a handful of years until Katrina hits. And so this is, you know, then becomes a classic Louisiana story where Katrina hits and then there's another hurricane, the name of which now eludes me. But three weeks later, there's another Category 3 hurricane that hits. So, like, the lower latitudes of Louisiana are obviously flooded and a lot of the prisons get flooded, so they need to relocate prisoners to different facilities. And they reopen this facility in Gina to house prisoners from other prisons that have been decommissioned by the storm. And so in 05 it reopens and they. Yeah, they just relocate hundreds of prisoners up there and, and on an emergency basis. And they actually bring down, I mean the, the, the staffing is not, not Wackenhead at this point. The staffing is actually. They bring down like CEOs from Rikers and, and other places in the state.

[Matt Binder]

And so is this a state run facility at that time or is it Wacken Hut just sort of like subcontracting back to the. They're just bringing people around for the.

[Sam Cedar]

Rest of the country. Yeah, I think they entered into an agreement with the state just on a temporary basis, emergency basis, to house people there, basically, quote, unquote. And yeah, so it's not even staffed up with private staff. It's staffed from other prisons. But of course the behavioral pattern is exactly the same. It takes almost no time. I mean, the stories of even just relocating the prisoners to this place, horrific. Like, the testimony about, about how they relocated the prisoners itself is, is, is, is, is stunning. And then you hear these, these reports come out later about how, I mean, unbelievable torrent of racial abuse for black prisoners. And it too is so bad that they end up having to shut it down and empty it out again. It's. It even despite, like, I don't understand.

[Matt Binder]

Like, it's one thing to say, like, we need to shut down this prison because there are abuses going on here, you know, but how does the facilitator of these abuses, like, it's not the physicality of the prison that is problematic, it is obviously the company that's running it.

[Sam Cedar]

Right?

[Matt Binder]

Like, how did they stay in business? And like, what kind of. When it gets shut down, are they just like, well, we tried and they just walk away? Or like, how is there no recourse or accountability for the actual company?

[Sam Cedar]

It's pretty amazing. I mean they, they rebranded, they became Geo Group. So it's not that there was no movement in, in their corporate behavior. I mean, I went through and looked actually at earnings statements and, and, and shareholders reports and stuff from this period. And, and when the facility is empty, obviously they're not happy about that balance sheet. They're, you know, they're like, they're a little. There's a, you know, line for the GINA facility, and it's empty and stuff. But at the end of the day, it's like, you know, it's bringing in. You get these federal contracts and you bring them down. And, and there's a lot of, I mean, it's a lot of money. It's a big industry. And, you know, we've seen their political influence also grow and grow and grow. And Pam Bondi, of course, our esteemed Attorney General, was a lot, you know, lobbyist for, for them up until the second that she took her current position. And yeah, it's just, you know, it's just incredibly remunerative industry. Finally.

[Matt Binder]

So and so, okay, it shuts down then, then it gets a third life, I guess.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, third life. So it shuts down again after the post Katrina debacle. And then, you know, they, they, they get the idea that they can expand it. Actually, the incredible thing that happens is they're like, this is, you know, two tries. This have not worked. Let's make it way bigger. And so they, they build out a ton more bed space out to 1170 beds, which is obviously much larger than the 276 they started with, and they start marketing it to the federal government as, as a facility. And of course, at that point, ICE is a relatively new department. Right. ICE only is, you know, created in 2003. This is 2007 at this point, that they're shopping this facility around. And so they win a federal contract for ice. And as it turns out, you know, ICE pays even better. Like, it's, it's a, it's a much better deal to get an ICE contract than it is to do states. So, so they're happy. And 2008, it opens as a nice detention center.

[Matt Binder]

And I want to get to the part of the story about how I should say the town reacts to this stuff, because it really is fascinating and a little bit disturbing, but they start ramping up as an ICE facility through the Obama years, where there is a lot of, you know, Obama was very aggressive in terms of deportations, you know, depending on who you talk to, but from, from their accounting to build some credibility, to develop comprehensive immigration reform. That.

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Matt Binder]

Was an abject failure, the entire project. By the end of the Obama administration, he puts a moratorium or ends private prisons for. For the federal government. Was this facility now considered a private prison or because it had sort of changed its category to a detention center, was it not really subject to that? I mean, of course, Trump comes in and it reverses it immediately. So maybe there was no issue. But what happened in that instance?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, you know, I think that it would have been open just before Obama was elected. And I don't know how actionable that standard really was, finally, in terms of outstanding contracts. I don't want to speak too confidently on this because I don't really know the ins and outs of it, but I don't think that that affected this facility. And while it may have sort of slowed some of the ice, the ICE and Private Prison alliance, like, ultimately, ICE as a department, is entirely reliant on private prison companies. It couldn't exist without them. And so, like, currently 90% of people in ICE detention are being held in private prison facilities. I don't think there was a big push during the Obama years to build public ICE facilities or ICE jails or whatever. So I don't know exactly the ins and outs of that thing. But it is interesting because during that, you're very right to bring up that period because it does slow down a little bit there. Like, from 08 to 16, at least in Louisiana, you don't see growth in this industry. But then in 17, it goes crazy. And, like, that's sort of where it picks right back up. Is. Is once Trump gets back in or gets in the first time, rather like that. That, at least for Louisiana, is where the ICE detention industry takes off.

[Matt Binder]

And we should say that. And Gina, it's extremely remote, 4,000 people. What percentage of the town works in the prison or is just sort of like, reliant on the prison? Because I imagine there may be some slight outside contracting that the prison does as well.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So the 4,000 figure, and I went through census data on this, I think it also counts the people who are in the prison, which is, you know, common practice for. For prison towns like this is how they do this stuff. But I. I went through that data. It said that. It said that Gino is 25% Hispanic and there are a thousand beds at the facility. And I went to. There's one Mexican restaurant in Gina, and I went there and I spoke with the wait staff, and I said, you know, I was like, how many. How many Latinos live Here must be sort of an interesting dynamic. And the both people I spoke to were like, It's. There are 15 Latinos here, so the rest of the thousand, I'm pretty sure, are people that are in the facility. So it might really be even lower than that, you know, in terms of, like, functional population. Anyways, Very small town. I think it's amazing about this is that the numbers are really, like. They're very low, the numbers. Right. Like. Like, I think that at most recent accounting that, like, the tax revenue to Gina specifically was like $30,000 a year. I think it's like 250 jobs. It's not like, you know, we're not talking about huge numbers. It's not like, I mean, if you.

[Matt Binder]

Have 3,000 people in. In a town, you know, 250 gets close to 10% from one employer.

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Matt Binder]

And, you know, working age is probably, you know, maybe even a higher percentage.

[Sam Cedar]

Right, Totally. And. And you're right with subcontractors and everything else, right? Like, it's probably a little higher than that. And it does end up being a pretty substantial percentage in the final accounting.

[Matt Binder]

And this is the facility that Mahmoud Khalil was held at?

[Sam Cedar]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So he was in there for, what was it, 104 days at final tally. It's an interesting place because it's the one place. Right. He was the one who was stuck there the longest. Alarezi Darodi, who was the Iranian student from the University of Alabama. He was also held there for 40 days and then ended up giving up and just accepting deportation. So of the facilities in Louisiana, of which there are nine, and then there's a tenth just across the Mississippi border that's part of the New Orleans field office. This is the place, I think is hard, you know, sort of like the hardest to get out of at a lot of levels. Like, it's. It's. It's the old. It's the oldest large one. And then, of course, the place where everyone else got out and Khalil was held the longest of any of these students. And then, of course, Dirodi got actually deported in the end.

[Matt Binder]

So how long are. I mean, the detainees there are presumably in process of being deported. Right? I mean, I don't know if the trend to agua people came from Gina as well, but how long is the typical stay?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, it's a really interesting question, because immigration court and the whole proceeding, it's very opaque. And I think that, not uncharitably, is called kangaroo court by a lot of people who know it pretty intimately, like, the length of stay is basically like, how badly do you want to be in this country? Right. And it's like, if you just give up and accept deportation, you might be gone in a matter of days. But if you feel like you have an asylum case that's legitimate or that you are in status as often people are now. Right. We're getting snatched by ICE agents. Like, well, you probably don't want to just accept that and get deported. What happens then, once. Once you're in the facility is that you can win your case and still not get out. So this is a very common story, is that people will win their asylum case, and then ICE has the ability to appeal those decisions, and they can appeal again and again and again.

[Matt Binder]

So you can win a case multiple times.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, yeah, you can appeal. They can appeal multiple times, and they have time to decide if they want to appeal. So they don't even have to appeal immediately. You can sit there for 30 days while they're mulling over whether or not they will appeal. And so it's one of these things where, like, there was a man who. Who died in detention in Gina, who had already won his asylum case. Like, he had been there for months after he'd already won his case, and it was just because ICE had decided that they wanted to appeal it. And so, you know, there he was. By any estimation, you would say he was someone who had gone through all the. You know, it's so hard to win these cases. He'd gone through all the hoops and won the case and. And was still there, and then ended up dying of a heart attack after, you know, he submitted multiple. Multiple allegations of abuse by the staff there and again and again and again. Didn't matter. He was stuck. And then eventually he died of a heart attack. So those are not uncommon stories.

[Matt Binder]

Talk a little bit about before we go, the. The town. I mean, the. Before we hopped on it, it reminded me a little bit of zone of interest. Of course, you know, this is not a death camp, although for some it was, but its purpose is not to kill people. But you can see in your story how it feels like this detention center is a source of shame for the town and that it sort of feels like it's slowly eating away at people.

[Sam Cedar]

People.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

It was a really interesting environment to be in because this is a town that does not love outsiders. It's. You know, I. I have, like, a pretty evident Southern California accent, and that was not doing me any favors talking to people around there. And. And there were some people who I think were very combative. Right. Like, most of the times in the town or multiple times while I was there, I was getting trailed by the police. Like, it was not. Like there were two separate incidents where I was, you know, had the cops on my tail. And this is not a big town and, you know, it's not a. There's no secret what was going on. And when I tried to speak with the, you know, the chief of police, it was very combative. When I tried to speak with the mayor, she, you know, was one day escaped out of the back door, the next day, didn't show up. The editor of the newspaper was extremely combative towards me. And the other people I talked to were sort of between, you know, fearful and, you know, sort of cagey. And no one. No one wanted their name. No one wanted their name on anything. And there was like, you know, there were some whispers. There were some things where, like, people would say, oh, you know, every once in a while someone shows up at the church, and we just don't. We don't ask. We don't ask them about their family. We don't ask what they're doing here. Like, we just pray and we go about our business and.

[Matt Binder]

The church. Presumably to visit the prison.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, given how, you know, how white the town is and stuff and how insular it is, like, you. Everyone knows exactly what someone is doing, and if they have a family member in ICE detention, it's. There's no surprise. But, yeah, it was very much like, don't put anything on the record. Don't say anything. Like, if people would express stuff to me and then immediately take it back. I had a lot of interesting conversations like that where I would talk to someone and they would be like, please, please, please don't use my name. And it was a really interesting environment to be in and challenging on a reporting level. But I think, yeah, certainly had that sort of spirit of something like the zone of interest, where everyone knows there's something going on up there, but it probably doesn't pay to make a lot of noise about it.

[Matt Binder]

How many places like this are there around the country?

[Sam Cedar]

That is a great question. Central Louisiana is very unique because it's so remote and it has such a favorable court system for facilitating deportations. It's sort of a perfect storm of remoteness, lack of resources, willing political climate to facilitate both detention and deportation. There are places like this sort of all over the country, though. It's gotten. Louisiana went from, you know, in 2017, I think there were two or three facilities. Now there are nine. You know, they opened five facilities in 2019 there. And they're all sort of peppered around these little towns in the middle of nowhere that are very hard to get to purposefully. So and so there are mega, you know, there are giant facilities sort of scattered around the country and Texas has got a few and California's got some big ones. There's one in Washington and Mississippi has a huge one. But yeah, it's interesting right now is they're trying to expand this as well. Right. There's a big push by the Trump administration to expand ICE detention. And so I think we're gonna see more and more of these. What's interesting is that basically they identify prisons and jails that have been closed or not being used oftentimes because of abuse allegations, and they dust them off and they turn them into ICE facilities. That's sort of the afterlife of, of pretty much any of these, these buildings.

[Matt Binder]

Well, Alex Salmon, thanks so much for coming on and talking to us about your piece. We will link to it in Slate entitled Donald Trump is enacting his darkest agenda in the backyard of a small town. Absolutely no one wants to talk about it. I appreciate your coming on and telling us about it. Once again, thanks for coming.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, you bet. Thanks for having me, Sam.

[Matt Binder]

We're back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. It is a pleasure to welcome to the program Claire Otorino. She is a barista and a member of the bargaining committee for the Blue Bottle Independent Union. She is on from Boston. And also joining us, BB Young from the Bay Area, a former barista at Blue Bottle. Welcome to you both.

[Claire Otorino]

Thank you for having us.

[B.B. Young]

Hi. Thank you.

[Matt Binder]

So Claire, let's, let's start with you. Give us a little background on for the folks who don't know Blue Bottle and basically how this unionizing drive started.

[Claire Otorino]

So the unionizing drive started thanks to my comrades who came before me last May. So we recently celebrated our one year anniversary thanks to Alex Pine who has appeared on More Perfect Unions. Bit about our union, such like that they were very instrumental. They're our current president and helping us fund the union. Did you want like a brand rundown on Blue Bottle itself?

[Matt Binder]

Well, yeah, I mean, just tell us, you know, it's, give us a little sense of it because I'm not sure that everybody's familiar with Blue Bottle. It is a, how many stores are there nationally and where are they mostly located?

[Claire Otorino]

I should, I should have the number. I'm not sure Nationally, we have east coast stores here in New York City where you're located, and then on the west coast where it originated. Then internationally it's mainly East Asia, so like Korea, Japan.

[Matt Binder]

Oh, so it's a pretty sizable coffee outfit and.

[Claire Otorino]

Yes.

[Matt Binder]

And do you have a sense of how many employees work at Blue Bottle?

[Claire Otorino]

I. I should also have that information. That's, that's my bad. No, at our location I would somewhere between like 10 and 20 at the moment.

[Matt Binder]

And Bibi, tell me your story. You're no longer working as a barista there?

[B.B. Young]

No, unfortunately not.

[Matt Binder]

Okay, well, but tell me what, what your involvement has been.

[B.B. Young]

So I was a assistant manager, like cafe leader alongside with my manager and I was just help him with the day to day progress of just, you know, how to run the cafe and whatnot. And just because of that involvement I wasn't too hands on with the union because I just. Just plausible deniability, you know, and just not trying to cross too many wires. But I wanted to be more active and more, more a part of it. So I decided to read the letter with the rest of my cohorts and.

[Matt Binder]

Then literally which letter back up and tell us because we don't know this, this story.

[B.B. Young]

Sorry. No. So our. On June 17th, we made, you know, claim that we wanted to have our union be public and be recognized by our company. And so we, on that Tuesday we read the. Read a letter just of our demands of just livable wage, wanting to have hours and having certified and hours just being. Sorry, I'm trying to see how to phrase the word. Just having.

[Matt Binder]

More consistent hours or consistent.

[B.B. Young]

Hours and just hours that we are. We were guaranteed when we first signed on and stuff and such like that. And so I read the letter out loud to our, our guests and everyone who was in there and then literally less than 24 hours. I was fired the next morning.

[Matt Binder]

Wow. And so how many were. Were you the only person fired?

[B.B. Young]

And I was, I was the only one fired.

[Matt Binder]

This was just last week.

[B.B. Young]

Yes.

[Matt Binder]

Oh, I see. Okay. And. And we should say this union drive has been going on since almost for a year and change I guess back in April of, of 2024. And so Claire, where. Where are we in terms of the. And this is, I should say this is an independent union. Are you guys working with an affiliate with any other union to work through this or.

[Claire Otorino]

No. So we, we shopped around a little bit, but ultimately it was decided to remain independent. It gives us a little bit more freedom in terms of our collective action and to be vocal on what we stand for. Like we were lucky enough to be able to release a statement on Palestine. We just sort of thought that everything worked better when the union was operated by the rank and file members who are like in the cafes.

[Matt Binder]

And where is the union? Has it been certified? Is the union in every blue bottle around the country? Or was like Bibi's experience a function of a national thing? We can get to that. But give us a sense of the union from shop to shop. Like how many shops are unionized? Are they recognized at this point?

[Claire Otorino]

Yeah. So in Massachusetts, the BVIU was initially founded for like Boston, Greater Boston.

[Sam Cedar]

I.

[Claire Otorino]

Guess that's technically the whole state, but all the, obviously they're in the metropolitan areas. So right now we are in the talks of a contract. We won our union election. The Bay Area just announced their union campaign. So that's the letter that Bibi read and face retaliation for immediately after.

[Matt Binder]

So if I understand correctly, all the shops in the Boston area are unionized. And are there any other. And the Bay Area is starting to. Are there any other sort of, I guess regional areas where the union has either operated or plans to operate? I guess maybe you can't tell me.

[Claire Otorino]

Plans, but I can't tell any plans. But we were the first domino to.

[Matt Binder]

Fall, as it were, I say, and as it is now the only domino that has fallen and which takes us to BB's participation in this action. Were there any other people who were fired during that action?

[B.B. Young]

No, I was the only one.

[Matt Binder]

So what, what is the justification that the company has given you to fire just you? Presumably there were other people who read off this letter too or. No.

[B.B. Young]

Well, they were trying to be, they were trying to crack down on a lot of stuff just within, like within house because I just feel like there was kind of a shake up of just trying to get new staff and stuff like in. So there was a lot of us who were on like our final write ups for like very small like stuff like me personally, I ended up getting my final write up for being four minutes late to work. And so that was kind of the drive that pushed me was I was like if you're going to fire me for being four minutes late to work, I, you know, I, I personally didn't have anything else to lose and I want better for my co workers and my cohorts around me. So that like that's what pushed me to go, you know what, yeah, I am going to read this letter and I am going to let them know that I want this union to Happen and I want better for my staff. And so then like I said the next morning, they said, well, you were, you were late for this amount of time and we're letting you go.

[Matt Binder]

How do you have a sense of how many folks in your particular shop and within the context of the Bay Area are interested in formalizing a union?

[B.B. Young]

I think within at least my cafe, a good, like I want to say, like maybe 80, 90% are for it and are like ready for it. I know a lot of the other stores also kind of have that same sentiment, like almost say 80, 90. Yeah.

[Matt Binder]

And so how is it? I guess the, the. And so are you guys planning a vote? Like, walk me through the process here. So if we have a union that is representing folks who are working for this company, but it's only regional, like, why does each shop need to have a union vote and will that. Because the union is recognizing or is being recognized in the Boston area in the event that each shop votes for it. Will they, will the. Will the company automatically recognize them as a union?

[B.B. Young]

To my knowledge, as far as I know, I know when we first read off the letter, we asked them to try to recognize. Not like try, but to recognize us on that following Friday. I'm not sure what date that that was, but, but they know radio silence didn't say anything about it, didn't recognize us. So I, I think if they are to recognize us, it would be as in the Boston area that they are going to cover the whole, at least East Bay, part of the blue bottle, Blue bottle chains.

[Matt Binder]

And what are the next steps for in the event that they don't voluntarily recog. Have a vote? Like, where do we stand relative to a. The National Labor Relations Board? And I imagine you're also dealing with a regional, National, I should say a regional labor relations Board as well.

[B.B. Young]

Me, personally, I'm unsure. I don't know if Claire can talk to. Talk a little bit more about that than I could because like I said, I'm still kind of new onto the hands of the whole, the whole shebang.

[Matt Binder]

Claire, tell us like, what, where, you know, if you can and, and, and tell us like, what will happen, like, how does a vote happen now in that one particular shop? And if that vote passes, who gets unionized and, and has the company committed to recognizing the unionization of each shop or each region after having done so in Boston?

[Claire Otorino]

Right. So so far, the union. We brought this up in our last bargaining session, which was coincidentally the day I think after they read the letter off on the West coast over there. The company's official response is that they declined to answer whether they will recognize us as a union, at least for now. It's sort of a strategic up in the air right now whether they'll be folding folded in to our bargaining unit. A lot of it depends on from what I've been told about some of the people who are a little bit more senior to me and a little bit more involved in the organizing of it all is it depends on where the company wants to draw the lines for the west coast specifically and then whether that should be a parallel contract or literally the same contract that we're still being stalled out for because we don't even have our contract yet.

[Matt Binder]

Interesting. And Bibi, tell me, like what when you decided to what has been the reaction of your fellow workers after you were were fired? And will, I don't know if this is a question for Claire, but. Or for you, BB but will there be some type of unfair labor practice filing take place in the wake of your inspiring.

[B.B. Young]

Not to like put myself like on a pedestal or anything, but I felt like I helped harbor a lot of the community and closeness that I had with the customer base co workers at my cafe. So it's like for like a lack of a better word, it feels like I kind of died at the cafe. So the shakeup has been a little just unsettling with everyone and especially with my other co workers because this, like I said, it's if they're going to retaliate and retaliate so soon off of something like that, you know, some of them are a little just worried of what else that they can see them under a microscope and what else that it can fire them and stuff off.

[Matt Binder]

I mean that's probably the purpose I would imagine is to. Is to scare other people, especially with.

[B.B. Young]

Me being an assistant manager. And it was like if you can get rid of your assistant manager, you literally can get rid of any of us. And so a lot of the customer base were like super unhappy and like not cool about it because our cafe itself was is a neighborhood cafe. So we see all those like those people every day at least like once or twice. And so a lot of them has felt the shakeup itself. So it's just sad.

[Matt Binder]

It's unsettling I would imagine and stressful I would imagine on, on you as well. And what about the filing of an unfair labor practice? I mean it sounds like you are obviously targeted just for announcing. It seems like quite a coincidence, let's put it that way.

[B.B. Young]

Yes, I am talking to them. I haven't. I set up meetings, but nothing has been set in motion yet.

[Matt Binder]

And so from your perspective, both BB And Claire and Claire, why don't you take this first?

[Matt Leck]

First.

[Matt Binder]

What can people do to help support you guys? I mean I know that you're starting negotiations and Bibi's shop is attempting to unionize in some fashion. And we also have a National Labor Relations Board that is largely dysfunctional at the moment. And we still have, particularly when you're talking about Boston and Los Angeles or I should say California still have labor relations, regional labor relations boards. What can people do to help in this environment?

[Claire Otorino]

So we do have a strike fund. We have striked multiple times this year so far. It's been one of the most effective forms of collective action that we've engaged in. The strike fund helps replenish lost wages obviously for workers participating in the strikes, but also as a plus of being an independent union. All of our bargaining notes are fully transparent and available on our website. So if any member of the public sort of wants to stay up to date on what's being passed back and forth over the table recently we were able to get a tentative agreement that sort of secured some migrant rights in terms of protocols when dealing with ICE that were favorable. So that was a recent win that people can read all about and sort of like follow along to know in more real time what's going on with the union.

[Matt Binder]

We'll put a link to that. And from your perspective BB I mean it sounds like these shops are hubs for the community and I would imagine the customer base can influence what these shops end up doing with with their employees. How else can folks help out in your situation?

[B.B. Young]

For me personally I have a GoFundMe if you would like to support to me [e-mail] BB defend BB and then I know just I this is ignited a little bit of a fire within myself and I hope that with the other cafes, not only just like us California based cafes but also like the New York ones and stuff like that. I know that they can go to the Blue bottle doc bluebottle union.org website and they can also get in touch with everyone there if they want to even try to unionize and try to get their stores, you know, recognized and get their rights and stuff taken care of.

[Matt Binder]

Bluebottle union.org we'll put that link in the podcast and YouTube description. Claire BB thanks so much for coming on and talking to us about it. Good luck with your respective fights that you have with blue bottle. I hope this company does the right thing by you guys.

[B.B. Young]

See you. Thank you so much.

[Claire Otorino]

Sam.

[Matt Binder]

Back.

[Matt Leck]

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. I hope you enjoyed those Sam cedar interviews after myself and matl had some fun at Bill ackman's expense. And now joining us on the show as we're about to head into the fun half of the program is Brandon Sutton. Brandon, how you doing, buddy?

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm doing great. How are you doing, Matt?

[Matt Leck]

I'm doing, I'm doing good. As we were talking before, a little bit better than usual. A little bit of a. Skipping my step since Tuesday night's election results.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. You know, I try not to embrace, like the politics of pettiness. I think that's become such a core premise on what drives so many people in our political system. So I try not to, I'm not trying to indulge in that too much. But watching the right wing commentators, watching the turbo libs have their varying degrees of meltdown has been something to behold. And I should say meltdowns about zoron, obviously, or as I, I've been calling it on my stream, Zoron derangement syndrome. And I think it's spreading. It's spreading like wildfire.

[Matt Leck]

Right, Right. What is it? That would be ZDs, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, ZDs.

[Matt Leck]

Yeah. I don't, I, I. It's funny because it's, it's across the board. You got the, you got the libs having varying reactions from like the abundance guys all of a sudden. Crediting abundance.

[Brandon Sutton]

Yeah. Just to jump in on that, you have, you have people like Matt Iglesias who are like, oh, well, this is just a fluke. You shouldn't have ran a, you know, a pervert.

[Matt Leck]

Like literally, literally, literally, like hours before the election results came in, Inglesias was literally saying, like, you know, Zoran ran a pretty good campaign. It's too bad he's a, he ran on socialism. That's going to hurt him a lot.

[Brandon Sutton]

Oh, that's what he's paid to say. He can. Matt Iglesias, at this point in his life cannot reach an alternative conclusion.

[Emma Vigeland]

Was he an Adams guy? Was, was that like Matty Iglesias is.

[Matt Leck]

I don't know if he was. But Nate Silver certainly. I'll never forget the Nate Silver tweet shortly after Eric Adams won the election in 2021, where he said something like, you know, I shouldn't really be looking too much into a New York City mayoral election this way, but Eric Adams gotta be one of the top five picks. Now for the future of the Democratic Party and their next one of their next presidential contenders. And it's like, wow, could anyone have been far wrong?

[Emma Vigeland]

I don't know who's wrong more often now, Nate Silver or Jim Cramer? Like, if you, if they had like a wrong off, who do you think would have like the worst run of predictions?

[Matt Leck]

I don't know. I mean, I mean, for this one, Nate Silver did it again, where just like Iglesias a few hours before, maybe it was the night before the election. Silver posts a screenshot of the. What's the gambling website that pays him and he doesn't disclose it? Poly Market. Yes. He posted a screenshot of the Poly Market like a graph showing where people's money is going to. And he's using that as if it was an actual poll. And he posts one that shows it was one that came shortly after Mamdani had a bump that came close to Cuomo. And then as that second poll that ended up being super wrong came out, it went back down from Mamdani and Cuomo took the lead again. He posted it right after that, a screenshot of the Poly Market graph right after that. And he was like, you know, maybe if this was two weeks ago, mom, Donnie could pull it off, but it's not looking very good.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, lots. So much of that is wish casting. So much of what counts as like deep serious punditry in liberal and conservative spaces is just like, like, you know, vocalizing your own biases without attributing them to that right.

[Matt Leck]

I mean, it couldn't have gone worse for these, the pollsters, I believe the only one who, who had any polling showing Mamdani in the lead, whether there was the Emerson one that came out the day before, but then Public Policy Polling had one like weeks before. And like he, he outdid it all. He outdid all the pundits there was. The best case scenario for Mamdani was at the end of the final round of ranked choice voting, he would finally come ahead of Cuomo after all the other votes were redistributed, after he got all of the Lander voters who put Zoron second. And not only did he not need any of that, he was by and far away the first place choice for so many people that Cuomo isn't even a sure thing for an independent run anymore.

[Emma Vigeland]

Cuomo was an incredibly weak candidate. I think, you know, Matty Iglesias is right in that analysis. Like, he, like Cuomo might have been the perfect storm for badness. That guaranteed this kind of result or at least facilitate this kind of result, because I don't want to minimize, like, Zoran's ground games or on like, compelling vision for New York City. But like, Andrew Cuomo ticked all the wrong boxes for what they would be trying to sell in a Democratic Party primary. In many ways, like trying to get him over the line was just their micro version of the 2020, you know, Democratic primary for president and Joe Biden v. Bernie Sanders. They were trying to get another, you know, another alleged sex criminal over the line in, you know, the form of Andrew Cuomo to dispel the illusions of the left that they might have a chance at power, but in this case they weren't able to do it. You know, I think it has to do with the unique makeup of New York City in many ways and then also, like, the unique nature of like, what Andrew Cuomo resigned as a result of.

[Matt Binder]

Right, right.

[Brandon Sutton]

There's one final thing before we do plugs and get to the fun half, but this quote here, I'm just. This is by. Is this a washing po Is Schliefer. Is this New York Times or Washington Post? I can't tell. This is. Oh, Puck News, I guess maybe or no alum. So maybe this is msnbc. I'm not sure where exactly he's reporting this, but he says as donors try to assess their next moves in the mayor race, one of the biggest donors to Andrew Cuomo super pac, the investor Mark Gorton, who I looked this up. He. He's the creator of Limewire. Shout out to the. The Olympus get urban assault vehicle MP3 that I got 25 years ago. But Mark Garden said he is likely to back Mamdani. That is because of the support that Mamdani got has gotten from Brad Lander, who Gorton said he ranked first. Quote, I feel like people misunderstood my 25. Let me say this. People like 2050. Yes, exactly. People misunderstood my quarter of a million dollars for Cuomo for real enthusiasm interview. It was basically, oh, looks like Cuomo is coming back. We don't want to be shut out. Let's try to get on his good side. That's kind of how things work with Cuomo. It's sad political pragmatism. I wish we lived in a world where these sort of things were not useful things to do.

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Matt Leck]

This is a. This is a. That's definitely something to be said about Cuomo and his brand of like mafioso politics. That's what he. How he ran Albany when he was governor. But Also, like, it says a lot about how the rich people donate. I mean, when I sent Bernie Sanders $27 back in 2016, that was the absolute most enthusiastic I've ever been.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Brandon Sutton]

Yeah.

[Matt Leck]

So I can't imagine how enthusiastic I'd have to be to par with $250,000.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just a business expenditure. It's like it's a, for some people, once you're giving that much money into the political machine, it's a business expenditure. I think, you know, we like to pretend, and by we, I mean the people who are taking that money like to pretend that it has no impact on them. So that's not the way it should be viewed. But yeah, it's not the same as the donations that Bernie get. It's, it's a much more quid pro quo situation.

[Matt Leck]

Right. All right, so let's go to the Fun House. There's a lot of stuff to get to, a lot of great clips. I will be live tonight with leftist [e-mail] mattbinder I believe we have a special guest joining us tonight, Olay, who is Eric Adams's number one arch nemesis. So it'll be interesting to hear what she's got to say about the upcoming general election now that Zoran is the Democratic pick. And Brandon, while I hand my daughter off to someone else, can you say what's going on with your show this week?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, absolutely. So I actually just finished streaming right before coming on to the Majority Report. And you can find that past stream in my next dream, which probably won't be tomorrow, but sometime this weekend on my YouTube channel, the discourse with Brandon Sutton, which is also a Twitch channel that you can watch the exact same stream on at the exact same time. The Discourse on Twitch.

[Brandon Sutton]

So very nice.

[Emma Vigeland]

Be there.

[Matt Leck]

Matt Lech, what do you got going on this week?

[Brandon Sutton]

Left reckoning? We did a Tuesday, we did a big public show on Iran. Two guests, Derek Davison and Iskander Sadegi also talked about the fight between Abbott and Patrick in Texas over THC and the I mean really in an insan insane political system they have in that state Sunday show. Patreon.com left recording. David and I will be back Sunday for patrons.

[Matt Leck]

All right, perfect. And we will. Sam will be back live tomorrow on the show if this is where you say goodbye to us. But otherwise we'll see everybody else in the fun half.

[Matt Binder]

Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now.

[Sam Cedar]

Now.

[Matt Binder]

And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Matt, Fun pack.

[Matt Leck]

What is up, everyone?

[Matt Binder]

Fun hack.

[Claire Otorino]

No.

[Matt Binder]

Me.

[Sam Cedar]

Keen, you did it.

[Matt Binder]

Fun hack.

[B.B. Young]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Matt Leck]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Matt Binder]

Fun hack. Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Brandon Sutton]

Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy.

[Matt Leck]

It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false.

[Matt Leck]

No.

[B.B. Young]

I'm sorry.

[Matt Binder]

Women. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.

[B.B. Young]

Where is this coming from?

[Claire Otorino]

Do you.

[Matt Binder]

Yeah, but. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A. Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

All right. You're safe.

[Matt Binder]

Yes.

[Matt Leck]

Is this me?

[Sam Cedar]

Is it me?

[Matt Binder]

It is you.

[Sam Cedar]

If it's me.

[Matt Binder]

Oh, it's me, think it is you. Who is you? No sense.

[Matt Leck]

Out.

[Matt Binder]

Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Matt Leck]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Matt Binder]

I'm going to go snow white. Libertarians.

[Brandon Sutton]

They're so stupid.

[Matt Binder]

Though common sense says, of course.

[B.B. Young]

Gobbledygook.

[Matt Binder]

We bailed him.

[B.B. Young]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Matt Binder]

Challenge.

[Emma Vigeland]

Man, I'm positively quivering.

[Matt Leck]

I believe 96. I want to say.

[Matt Binder]

8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 8 3, 5, 5, 0, 11 half.

[Brandon Sutton]

3, 8, 9, 11.

[B.B. Young]

For instance, $3,400.

[Sam Cedar]

$1,900.

[Matt Binder]

5, 4. $3 trillion.

[Matt Leck]

Sold.

[Matt Binder]

It's a zero sum game.

[Claire Otorino]

Actually.

[Matt Binder]

You're making me think less, but let me say this.

[Matt Leck]

You call it satire, Sam goes in satire.

[Matt Binder]

On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every.

[Matt Leck]

Day, all day, like, everything you do.

[Matt Binder]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We seen you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[B.B. Young]

It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.

[Matt Binder]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know, but you should know.

[Brandon Sutton]

People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Matt Binder]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Brandon Sutton]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Matt Binder]

I love it.

[B.B. Young]

I do love that.

[Matt Binder]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Matt Binder]

2 o' clock, we're already late and the guy's being a dick, so screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[B.B. Young]

Outrageous.

[Matt Binder]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

[Sam Cedar]

Bye.

[Matt Binder]

Love you.

[Sam Cedar]

Bye.

[Matt Binder]

Bye.